Photographer of Families, Small People and Delightful Places, Travel and Lifestyle Writer and Blogger, Lives in Newcastle, Loves the North, Often Accompanied By A Beagle Named Holly Bobbins

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Uk Cityscapes, My story and why I need your help...

You find me back in Newcastle today dear reader, I'm home to do some admin, catch up with some of my regular work and above all do some planning for the next stage of my UKCityscapes challenge

I've been thinking about writing this since I started the quest to be the first person to visit, document and photograph all 69 cities of the UK and I feel it's probably important to provide some background into the reasons I'm actually doing this.

Here's the thing, I started my business in June 2007, before that point I was recovering from agoraphobia, for 3 years I'd barely been past my back gate on my own, when I was getting better I would take Looby to the park for protection, she was 3 years old at the time!

You see in 2003 during my 3rd pregnancy I was finally diagnosed with bi-polar disorder something which had been in my life for as long as I could remember but without any diagnosis other than depression and I knew myself it couldn't just be depression, I went through long periods of being quite happy, too happy, trapped in a whirlwind of euphoria, when my hubby met me in 1999 I was the most fun girl at the party, we know now it was because I was not a well person.

It's often common for bi-polar to lead to agoraphobic symptoms and in 2004ish it happened to me, I was attacked in the park while walking our dog and I just stopped going out on my own, the open world became a scary place and it was just easier to stay at home, in these days of the internet you would be surprised just how easy it is!

I have to say that from the day Looby was born I was put on the right medication and started the long process of getting better and being well and since 2007 I have been completely well, yes I still have days where I fight harder and in January this year I felt myself slipping into the not going out pattern, mostly because i'd worked too hard doing stupid amounts of work for very little reward and I was exhausted, this project is the perfect antidote.

When I am on top of the highest building in the city right out in the open, often feeling so high that I am amongst the Gods it's an amazing feeling to remind myself just how free I am, like I've taken all of my demons, lined them up against a wall and conquered them one by one.

I am making a commitment today to donate a percentage of the royalties from my eventual book to the charity MIND.

and that's why I need your help to succeed, I can't do this on my own, the cost of travel alone would make your eyes water but I want to do this to tell the world that you can do anything as long as it's on your own terms, I want to stick two fingers up at mental health and say we're all fantastic and we can do things in spite of long term health conditions. I want to inspire other people to go and have adventures and conquer their own demons, some times it is about feeling the fear and doing it anyway. You only have 1 life and it's a big adventure, you must do something to make it count.

Thanks for listening and even if you can only support me by sharing the crowd funding page on your social media feeds as long as we can all crowd together and get this thing funded to wonderful fabulous fruition then that's all that matters.